Minimalism vs. frugality

December 30th, 2010

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been reading a lot of minimalist blogs lately. One of the hardest things I’ve come across when trying to simply my life and get rid of stuff I don’t need is when minimalism and frugality are at odds.

I’ve been raised to be a fairly frugal person. As far back as I can remember my mom has been shopping at thrift stores, and most of my clothes growing up were second hand. If I was buying new, I got many things at the dollar store. I often spend hours at the grocery store because I have to be sure I’m getting the best deal (per unit price, of course) whenever I’m buying something, and that’s a lot of calculating (unless I shop at Kroger, where they calculate all that for me).

So how are minimalism and frugality at odds? Frugality is about getting the most use out of what you have, and minimalism is all about having less. If you have six tubes of toothpaste lying around in the bathroom, all half-used, a frugal person wouldn’t throw any away until the last drop has been squeezed out. A minimalist would throw out five.

Why does this matter? In the end, you have to weigh the monetary gain over the mental strain that all that extra stuff takes. Personally, if I have so much stuff lying around that it’s starting to bother me, then it’s worth passing up a little savings here and there to keep my sanity.